


halfway decent people

by slowjam



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-07
Updated: 2013-06-07
Packaged: 2017-12-14 05:24:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/833246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slowjam/pseuds/slowjam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She’s surprised when he meets her eyes and nods. “It’s what any halfway decent person would’ve done.” (season 1 au)</p>
            </blockquote>





	halfway decent people

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this fic during season 1 and was based on the 1.08 trailer. Since then the characters have proven to be completely different from how I perceived them at the beginning, so I apologize for that. Good luck with this one, folks.

Allison gives up on sleep after a couple hours.

  
By 6 am she changes her clothes, gathers her hair in a ponytail, ties her laces, leaves a note on the fridge, and runs.

  
The music in her ears drowns out the jangle of her keys, but it does little for the battle continuing on in her head.

  
-

She's about halfway through the trail at the park when she sees Jackson sitting on a bench facing an open field, his body edged forward and his gaze set on the horizon. She passes him. His eyes stay locked.

  
Allison takes a quick lap around the tennis courts before deciding to join him. She sits an arm's length apart from Jackson and shoots him a quick glance before winding the wire around her music player. Jackson's attention remains on the distance in front of him, his expression blank. He shifts his foot slightly, kicking at the gravel.

  
"Did you want something?" he asks.

  
“Yes.” Allison mirrors his posture, her eyes halfheartedly searching for what captured his attention. "I never got to say thank you. You know, for calming me down at school.” She crinkles the space between her eyebrows as she remembers being trapped in the room. “Or trying to, at least. So... thanks.”

  
She’s surprised when he meets her eyes and nods. “It’s what any halfway decent person would’ve done.”

  
He forces a tired smile. She returns it.

  
“How’re you feeling?” she asks.

  
He inhales deeply, but she cuts him off before the words have time to form.  
  
"And I mean honestly, okay? None of that macho stuff.”

  
Jackson sits up slightly and tries his best to read her while her eyes seem to do the same. He returns to the searching the horizon.

  
“ _Honestly_ , I’m still freaked out by what happened last night at school. Couldn’t sleep.” He begins to pick at his hands. “I actually, um. Actually haven’t been able to sleep a lot before this, either, so that night school adventure came at a horrible time.”

  
She ponders this for a moment before chuckling softly. “I don’t think there’s ever a good time to be locked in a school with a supposed killer. Ever.”

  
“Yeah.”

  
A gust of wind sways the leaves of the surrounding trees. Allison pulls her jacket in tighter.

  
Jackson looks at her. “So how’d you manage the rest of the night?”

  
“I didn’t. My dad sent me straight to my room and I was left with my own thoughts to lull me to sleep.”

  
“That’s tough.”

  
“Yeah.”

  
Her phone buzzes. Allison lets out a breath of frustration as she hits ignore. She knows Jackson saw the name on the screen. She feels his eyes silently questioning her.

  
“It’s hard finding people you can trust, you know?” The corners of her eyes begin to wet. “I was supposed to be able to trust him. Instead, he pulls out all of these lies. And for what?”

  
“I think,” he begins, turning to her. “I think people try to hide things to keep others from worrying.”

  
Allison traces her bottom eyelid with a finger. “It never works, though.”

  
Jackson shrugs in response. He moves a hand back to rub his neck and she notices how he tries his best to suppress a wince when his fingers meet the deep cuts placed there.

 

-

When they return to school, Allison sits across from Lydia and Jackson at lunch.

  
Allison keeps her eyes down on her tray. She slowly picks at the vegetables on her tray, as though she’s searching for the perfect piece of loose corn.  
“Scott’s looking over here, isn’t he?”

  
Lydia takes a break from swirling the yogurt in her cup to glance over Allison’s shoulder.

  
“Yup.” She looks back at Allison and continues swirling. “And with a really pathetic look on his face, too. Good job.”

  
“I had to!” she defends, though she’s sure Lydia doesn’t even care about Scott’s feelings in the first place. “I couldn’t do it anymore.”

  
Lydia prickles at her tone. “Oh my gosh, Allison. People _lie_ to keep things _normal_. That’s how life works.”

  
Allison watches as Lydia eats her yogurt with disinterest. “I know there was more to what he told us that night.” She hesitates before continuing. “Part of me thinks that we were being chased by something that wasn’t human. Or more than human. I don’t know.”

  
Jackson looks over at Allison and tries his best to process her speculation. Lydia rolls her eyes dismissively.

  
“Whatever,” Lydia says as she gathers the last bits of yogurt from her cup.

  
Allison raises an eyebrow. “Don’t you think there’s something more to all of this? Because it definitely feels like it.”

  
“Just stop, okay? It’s not our job to worry about this.”

  
“I know it’s not our job, but maybe we could just talk about it. It’ll be good, you know? Because then we won’t keep it all bottled up inside—”

  
Jackson tries to cut in. “Allison—”

  
“—then maybe we could just talk to each other, because—”

“I don’t want to talk about it!” Lydia says as she stands up, staring down Allison. “Just drop it.”

  
Lydia gathers the disposable containers from the other two people with her and moves toward the trash bins.

  
Allison looks at Jackson after his girlfriend leaves.

  
“She does that sometimes,” he says.

  
Allison returns to her tray and pokes at her food.

  
“I just. I don’t want nightmares to become a regular thing,” she says. “It’s only been a few nights, though.”

  
He’s not sure what to say to that.

 

-

 

Later that week, Jackson enlists Allison to help him find an anniversary gift for Lydia. He stands at the front door of the house and an older man answers, whom he assumes to be her dad. Before he can introduce himself, Allison bounds in and tells her dad that Jackson is a part of that chem study group she was talking about, and they might be back a bit late but don’t worry, okay?

  
Jackson shakes the man’s hand. “I’ll see you soon, sir.”

  
Mr. Argent nods. “Don’t study too hard.” Jackson feels the sharp gaze dig into his back as they walk toward his car.

  
“Yeah, so… you trying not to make your dad worry? Totally made him worry.” He presses the alarm twice and they climb inside. “Also: How late is late? Do you really think this is going to take us that long?”

  
Both of their seatbelts click into place. Jackson pulls out of the driveway and Allison waves to her dad as she leaves. “Well, I’m technically still grounded, so I figured I might as well enjoy what little time I have outside.”

  
He smirks and tells her she can change the radio station, so she does.

 

-

 

After a good hour of combing through the vintage store, he finds a round, silver locket with dark swirls and curves etched onto the surface. He calls Allison over. She takes the locket in her hands and swipes her thumb along the design.

  
“I approve. This will go with almost any outfit, too.” Allison hands the piece of jewelry back to him. “It took you long enough. I was getting tired of you shooting down my suggestions. How well do you know Lydia again?” She grins up at him.

  
“Hey,” he says lightheartedly. “I know my girlfriend. I just know more about who she was—not so much on who she _is_.”

  
Despite his smile, there’s a slight sadness in the way he says this. She shakes her head at him but replies in an amused tone. “So what do you know about who she _is_?”

  
“I know that she makes me happy,” he says as Allison follows his lead to the checkout counter. She eyes the line ahead of them and guesses there are about twenty people in front to one cashier.

  
“Okay,” she says. They take their place in line. “Now tell me something about _her_.”

 

-

 

They pick up burgers and fries for dinner at a drive-through window and eat in the car.

  
Allison unwraps her burger and pauses. “Thanks for getting me out of the house.”

  
Jackson swallows his third bite. “Nah, thanks for agreeing to come.”

  
They wolf down their burgers to the sound of the radio for a good amount of time.

  
“Why me, though?” Allison asks, breaking the silence between them. “Why’d you ask me to help you?”

  
Jackson rolls the wrapper into a ball and puts it into one of the paper bags. “You’re her friend.” He shrugs. “Lydia really likes you.”

  
She nods. “And you?”

  
“I like you, too.”

“Right, right,” she says, continuing to nod her head. Jackson takes a sip from his drink as he watches Allison lose herself in her own thoughts. He turns the radio off.

  
“Are you still having those nightmares?” he asks.

  
“What?” Allison snaps out of her reverie. “Oh, that. Nah. Kinda. Sometimes.” She starts on her fries. “The first two nights I was reliving that night at school again, and I felt like I was being chased by some sort of monster. Like a dog or something. My aunt thinks I dreamt of a wolf. She says that our family has issues with wolves.”

  
“I’m guessing she doesn’t mean allergies.”

  
She laughs a little. “No. Something more than that.” Allison puts her fries back in the bag rolls up the opening. “It’s weird, but calling that monster a wolf… it calmed me down. It helped me put a face to whatever it was I was running from…” she trails off, then looks at him. Her eyes seem to size him up.

  
“You’re gonna think this is really weird.”

  
“Try me,” he says, his voice carrying a hint of a challenge.

  
Allison looks away. “Last night, in the dream… I wasn’t running away.”

  
She looks back at Jackson. He keeps listening.

  
“I was running towards it,” she says, “and I shot it.”

  
He gives her a puzzled look. “With, like, a gun or something?”

  
“With a bow and arrow,” Allison answers, though it sounds more like a question with her voice getting a higher at the end. She lets out a short sigh of defeat. “Archery used to be my thing, but… I never tried to kill anything with it. In my dream, I’m pretty sure I liked it. The killing.”

  
It’s silent for what feels like an eternity. Allison laughs to herself.

  
“I don’t know why I’m telling you this.”

“I asked you,” he explains. There’s a sincerity in his eyes reminiscent of that night at school. “I just don’t know what to say. I don’t really do the whole dream interpreting thing.”

  
“It probably means nothing.” She meets his eyes and smiles. “I can get really superstitious.”

  
“I get why you’re freaked out, though,” Jackson says. He folds his arms behind his back and flinches when one of his hands grazes the lower nape of his neck.  
Allison sits up slightly. Jackson tries his best to play it off.

  
It doesn’t work.

  
“So it still hurts?”

  
He gives up on the front and winces openly. “It could be better.”

  
“You didn’t get it checked out?”

  
Jackson removes his hand and exhales with a bit of strain. He shakes his head.

  
She almost decides against it, taking into account the fallout between him and his girlfriend in the chemistry classroom and his general day-to-day attitude, but she tries anyway.

  
“Can I see it?”

  
He looks at her, and it’s as though he’s trying to look right through her. She feels just as uncomfortable as the day they sat together against the lockers. This time, though, Allison doesn’t draw back.

  
Jackson cranes his neck toward Allison and she moves in closer to get a better look. Her nails skirt around the openings. She wants to see if the markings are still red, so she moves a hand up to switch on the light.

  
He grabs her raised hand with haste. His grip is too firm.

  
“Jackson.”

  
He stares back at her and loosens his grip, then releases.

“I’m sorry,” he breathes out. Jackson draws his gaze to the dashboard.

  
Allison scoots further away but continues to watch him.

  
“I get it,” she says in a soft tone. “Hiding things to keep people from worrying or to keep things normal. I can understand that.”

  
His eyes stay glued to the dashboard.

  
“What I don’t get is how people just pile all of this conflict on themselves, because it doesn’t change the truth, Jackson. It doesn’t change the fact that something is wrong.”

  
Jackson looks back at her.

  
“I get why you’re not telling me.” She looks out the window. “But tell someone, okay? Because you can’t take whatever’s going on by yourself.”  
Jackson sits up and tilts his head up toward the roof of the car.

  
“Allison.”

  
She turns towards him.

  
“I’ve started seeing things,” he says. “And I think it might be from whatever gave me this. The stuff I see is crazy. If I told anyone, they’d probably have me committed.”

  
It’s silent again. He’s just about ready to start the car when she speaks.

  
“Try me,” she says, her voice carrying a hint of a challenge.

 

-

 

Allison is finishing up homework in her room when her phone buzzes. She taps the screen to read the message: “thanks. for everything.”

  
She pulls up the keyboard and responds: “it’s what any halfway decent person would’ve done.”


End file.
